Various procedures include removing the entirety or a section of a vertebral member. The procedures may also include removing more than one section or entirety of vertebral members. These procedures may be required due to damage to the vertebral member, such as that caused by a specific event such as trauma, a degenerative condition, a tumor, or infection.
Once the vertebral member is removed, an implant is inserted to replace the removed member or members. The implant maintains the spacing of the remaining vertebral members providing for them to function properly. The positioning and size of the implant are carefully determined prior to insertion. Once inserted, the implant should remain in position.
One surgical concern is securely interposing a vertebral implant between the remaining vertebral members to ensure that the implant can resist axial, torsional, and shear loading without causing anterior displacement (“kick-out”), posterior retropulsion of the implant and any associated graft material, or subsidence. Existing vertebral implants which attempt to minimize these methods of failure can often result in other undesirable consequences such as instrumentation pull-out, graft dislodgment, or erosion of nearby vascular and soft tissue structures due to high profile design.